Aeroplane Ground School Vses Helicopter Ground School

[cherminator]

Ummm....why not by a plane ticket and travel to the west coast, where the training is "optimal" at a reasonable cost ?????

 

I can't leave home for months at a time to get my license as I have a business here that I need to watch over. If there was a school somewhere in B.C. or Alberta that did a solid two weeks of ground school, I could probably do that. Are there schools out there that do that? I thought they taught ground school in little dribs and drabs over a longer period of time.

 

If anyone knows of a school in B.C. or Alberta that is reasonable and teaches ground school full time, all at once, please let me know,

 

The other option is to do all my training (ground school and flying) in the next town which would mean a 3 hour round trip every day, which I'm not too keen on.

 

I really don't mind paying for flight time locally as it is in line with the better schools out there, but their ground school price is what's holding me back.

[rotorheadrob]

I'd still like to know what school you are talking about, 20 grand sounds imposible to me, and I find it hard to believe.

 

 

 

rob

 

[Jamhands]

Mountainview Helicopters Flight School in Springbank AB does not charge for ground school under the following conditions:

 

1. you do your flight training with them.

2. you do the ground school in the class format with the other students and not one on one with an instructor.

 

The ground school costs are covered in the hourly cost of the helicopter. The Classroom course runs 3 times a year. Next class would be starting around Jan 15. Runs Monday to Thursday 8:00 - 12:00. Takes 4 - 6 weeks to complete the 80 hours for commercial so the 40 hours for Private license would be a week or two less.

 

Extra ground school carried out one on one with an instructor costs 40 $ an hour. Keep in mind that you cannot write the written exam until you have completed 50% of the flight time required for the license your are writing for. Meaning if you do the ground school too far ahead of when you do your flying, it can be a challenge to remember everything for that long.

 

Cheers.

[rotorheadrob]

Yes you are right, if you are looking for the cheapest way to get licensed mountain view would be the answer.

 

 

 

 

rob

[cherminator]

Mountainview Helicopters Flight School in Springbank AB does not charge for ground school under the following conditions:

 

1. you do your flight training with them.

2. you do the ground school in the class format with the other students and not one on one with an instructor.

 

The ground school costs are covered in the hourly cost of the helicopter. The Classroom course runs 3 times a year. Next class would be starting around Jan 15. Runs Monday to Thursday 8:00 - 12:00. Takes 4 - 6 weeks to complete the 80 hours for commercial so the 40 hours for Private license would be a week or two less.

 

Extra ground school carried out one on one with an instructor costs 40 $ an hour. Keep in mind that you cannot write the written exam until you have completed 50% of the flight time required for the license your are writing for. Meaning if you do the ground school too far ahead of when you do your flying, it can be a challenge to remember everything for that long.

 

Cheers.

 

 

Do most ground schools take that long to complete are are there more condensed ground school courses out there?

[Phil Croucher]

I may have a way out of this. I know Rob was trying to get an online course together, but the costs were horrendous. However, I already have a distance learning course for helicopter pilots for Europe. It wouldn't take much work to adapt it for Canada, and Transport tell me that as long as a CFI certifies it, that's good enough.

 

It's not CBT (yet), although I have just come across some software that will cut the costs for that drastically, but it's paper based, meaning you can study anywhere, but the progress tests will be available online.

 

If there's a market for that kind of thing I coud have it up and running inside a month. I reckon the costs would be approx $2000

 

What does the panel think?

 

Phil

[cherminator]

I may have a way out of this. I know Rob was trying to get an online course together, but the costs were horrendous. However, I already have a distance learning course for helicopter pilots for Europe. It wouldn't take much work to adapt it for Canada, and Transport tell me that as long as a CFI certifies it, that's good enough.

 

It's not CBT (yet), although I have just come across some software that will cut the costs for that drastically, but it's paper based, meaning you can study anywhere, but the progress tests will be available online.

 

If there's a market for that kind of thing I coud have it up and running inside a month. I reckon the costs would be approx $2000

 

What does the panel think?

 

Phil

 

I think if, like most distance learning courses, you included some help over the phone when a student gets stuck, you would have a winner.

[cherminator]

So as long as a CFI certifies it, I would be able to do it on my own then just write the exam somewhere and that`s it for ground school?

 

[cherminator]

It looks like I found an online ground school:

 

http://acceleratedaviation.com/website/ogs.html

 

They told me:

 

"If your flying school approves of you completing some or all of your mandatory ground school hours via self study (for example, using our self study course texts or completing our online ground school) then, provided this is acceptable to your flying school, it will meet Transport Canada standards. We suggest that you contact the CFI (Chief Flying Instructor) at whichever flying school you will be utilizing and ask them whether you can apply self study using the "Culhane" training manuals and online course towards formal ground school. Most helicopter flying schools should be very accommodating in this regard."

 

They don`t have an online Private Pilots License course though, only commercial.

 

[Phil Croucher]

Yes, there would be telephone/skype support - we already do classes by videoconferencing in Europe. The $2000 I quoted was for the commercial - the PPL(H) would be a lot cheaper. Is it 80 hours these days? We have time logging software that will record that for the authorities.

 

I guess you need to talk to the school concerned - most of them know my stuff (if they don't try Electrocution's Aviation Books). They also know Culhane.

 

Phil